onsdag 20. november 2024

Kinas nye jagerfly likner på F-35 - A&SF

‘Blueprints’ for China’s New Fighter Similar to F-35, Air Force Chief Says

Nov. 19, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

The Air Force’s top officer said China’s new stealth fighter has one distinctive feature: It appears to draw its inspiration from the U.S.’s F-35.

“It’s still fairly new,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin said in a Nov. 19 interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine. “But, yes, it’s pretty clear; you could put it side-by-side and see, at least, where we believe they got their blueprints from, if you will.”

China’s J-35A was recently unveiled at the Zhuhai Air Show by China’s People’s Liberation Army. As Allvin noted, the plane looks remarkably similar to an F-35, though, unlike the American warplane, it is equipped with two engines instead of one.

U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Ridge ShanPhoto courtesy PLA.

Allvin declined to discuss details of what the U.S. knows about the J-35, citing a need to protect classified information. But much of Allvin’s program to bring about the “re-optimization” of the U.S. Air Force is driven by the need to deter China’s growing military.

“Overall I think we should just be very aware of the scope and the scale—if nothing else, the scope,” Allvin said, referring to China’s growing air forces.

China also operates another stealth fighter, the J-20 air superiority aircraft, and is working on the H-20 flying wing stealth bomber, according to a 2023 Pentagon report on China’s military forces.

In March, then-commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Adm. John C. Acquilino said that China’s People’s Liberation Army had “the world’s largest Navy, soon to be the world’s largest Air Force.”

China has over 3,100 aircraft in the PLA Air Force and PLA Navy of which about 2,400 are combat aircraft, the Pentagon report noted.

The U.S. Air Force has around 4,000 crewed, non-trainer aircraft. The U.S. Navy and Marines have thousands of aircraft of their own.

China has a long history of copying U.S. aircraft designs, though that doesn’t mean their combat aircraft are as capable as their American counterparts in other respects.

“The Chinese development of their capabilities is something we need to we need to respect and be able to account for,” Allvin said. “One thing that they’ll never catch up on us is the quality of our force, the quality of our entire total force, the quality of our [noncommissioned officer corps], the quality of our aviators, the maintainers, all of that. But I don’t want to make it a close fight.”

The Air Force has recently unveiled major structural reforms and a new force design designed to better counter China.

“We have to have an Air Force that can still survive and can execute effectively in many different threat environments,” Allvin said.

Sannsynlig sabotasje på kablene i Østersjøen - NRK

Sjekk innlegg her på bloggen den 27. oktober 2023 vedr. en tilsvarende sak som også involverte et kinesisk fartøy. (Red.)

Dansk aksjon mot kinesisk skip etter kabelbrot i Østersjøen

Den danske marinen utfører ein aksjon mot det kinesiske skipet dei har skugga sidan to viktige kablar blei brotne i Østersjøen, skriv fleire medium.

Yi Peng 3, ifølge X-brukar

BLEI SKUGGA AV DANSK MARINE: «Det kinesiske skipet Yi Peng 3» blei følgt av eit dansk militærskip på veg ut av Østersjøen, melder SVT. No er Danmark i gang med ein aksjon mot det same skipet ved Kattegat.

Foto: Droxford Maritime

Foto: NRK

Oda Eggesbø Ottesen– JournalistJournalist

Publisert i dag kl. 15:20 Oppdatert for 7 minutter siden

Aksjonen skjer på vegner Sverige, der lasteskipet ligg for anker ved Kattegat i dansk farvatn, erfarer Danmarks radio.

Det danske forsvaret stadfestar på X at dei er til stades i nærleiken, for å skugge eit kinesisk lasteskip. Dette har dei gjort sidan i går, ifølge skipsdata frå Marine Traffic.

Samtidig erfarer svenske SVT at etterforskinga, som Sverige leier på vegner av fire land, i aukande grad konsentrerer seg om det same kinesiske skipet.

– Det er skipsrørsler som svarar til denne kriminaliteten på maritim overvaking, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, tysdag, utan å kommentere ikkje «Yi Peng 3» direkte.

– Difor er det sett i gang undersøkingar om sabotasje.

Sjekk hele saken her: https://tinyurl.com/3m8s6exf

Fregattkjøpet godt beskrevet i DefenseNews

France, Germany, UK, US make Norway’s billion-dollar frigate shortlist

By Rudy Ruitenberg

Nov 19, 2024, 06:13 PM

Salvage operation of the shipwrecked Norwegian navy frigate "KNM Helge Ingstad" are shown in Hjeltefjorden near Bergen, Norway, on Feb. 27, 2019. (Vidar Ruud/AFP via Getty Images)

PARIS — Norway has narrowed the choice of possible partner countries for its future frigate program to France, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S., and plans to start talks with those countries’ governments about setting up a strategic partnership.

The program to buy at least five and possibly six frigates will represent Norway’s biggest defense investment ever, surpassing the acquisition of F-35 fighter jets, Defence Minister Bjørn Arild Gram said in a briefing on Tuesday. The country plans to make a final decision on a future strategic partner in 2025.

Norway is looking to join an existing frigate program to speed up fielding, thereby obviating upgrade investments in the country’s existing Fridtjof Nansen-class frigates. All major naval forces within NATO are in the process of adding new frigates, and Norway said it wants to establish a strategic partnership with a close ally rather than just buy a stand-alone vessel type.

“The new frigates represent the largest acquisition planned for the Norwegian armed forces in the coming years,” Gram said.

The country plans to invest several hundred billion Norwegian kroner in its navy, as well as significantly increase operating budgets and personnel, according to Gram. One hundred billion kroner is equivalent to around US$9.1 billion.

Norway is an important maritime state within NATO, and the High North is the country’s most strategic area of interest, important to both Norway and the alliance, Gram said. The ambition is for the Royal Norwegian Navy to be able to operate continuously in the ocean areas off Norway, according to the minister.

Defense officials envision a strategic frigate partnership that includes joint acquisition, operation and maintenance, as well as continuous development and upgrades of the ships during their service life. Gram said the new vessels will require upgrade and support for several decades, and Norway is looking for a partner that will commit for the entire service life of the future frigates.

The country isn’t just considering the capabilities of each potential partner country, but also coinciding strategic interests, including in the High North, according to the minister.

France started sea trials of its first Defense and Intervention Frigate this year, with another four ships planned, while Germany laid the keel for the first of four F126 frigates. The U.S. is constructing its first Constellation-class frigate, based on the French-Italian FREMM multi-mission frigate, although that program has run into delays. Meanwhile, the U.K. has seven frigates under construction, including four Type 26 anti-submarine warfare vessels and three Type 31 frigates.

The four countries are working on significantly different-sized vessels, from France’s brand-new FDI frigate displacing 4,500 metric tons, to Germany’s F126 frigate that will displace around 10,000 tons. Norway’s current Fridtjof Nansen-class warships, built by Spain’s Navantia, displace around 5,200 tons fully loaded.

Norway has a longstanding maritime cooperation with France, and while the French have a more global focus than the Norwegians, they’ve shown increasing interest in the High North, the defense minister said. The U.K. and Norway also have particularly close security and defense ties, and the Royal Navy has long been a main partner for the Norwegian forces, according to Gram.

The Nordic country also has security ties with Germany, with cooperation traditionally mainly within the land domain, though the countries are cooperating on submarines and anti-ship missiles, Gram said. Meanwhile, the U.S. is Norway’s most important ally, cooperating in all domains with a focus on the North Atlantic, according to the minister.

A key consideration in the final decision will be the ability for Norwegian technology and industry to contribute to both development and sustainment of the future frigate, according to Gram.

The Norwegian government in 2023 reached out to 11 countries with frigate programs, which in addition to the four nations picked for further talks included Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and South Korea, according to Gram. The frigate program was included in the country’s long-term defense plan proposed in April.

Ikoniske "Rosie the Riveter" er død - DefenseNews

‘Rosie the Riveter’ Lucille MacDonald dies at age 98 in Hawaii

Wyatt Olson

Stars and Stripes • November 20, 2024

Lucille MacDonald poses in her work coveralls in this undated photo taken during World War II while she worked as a shipyard welder in Georgia. (Dodo Dunaj)

FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii — Lucille “Cille” MacDonald, who this spring was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for “Rosie the Riveter” work during World War II, died Friday in Valley Island, Maui. She was 98.

MacDonald, a longtime Maui resident who narrowly escaped the Lahaina wildfire last year, was a shipyard welder during the war, according to Pacific Historic Parks, which announced her death in a news release Monday.